Journey into heart of darkness

Researcher finds herself searching the jungle for answers to mystery

July 01, 2011|By Carolyn Kellogg, Tribune Newspapers

In Ann Patchett's new novel, "State of Wonder," an ordinary woman winds up in increasingly extraordinary circumstances. That woman is Marina Singh, a 42-year-old pharmaceutical researcher who travels to a remote part of the Amazon after receiving news that her colleague Anders has died there.

The dutiful daughter of an American mother and an Indian father who divorced when she was young, Singh seems an unlikely choice for a jungle adventure. Despite her dark looks, she feels at home in Minnesota. She returned there after her training and likes her quiet laboratory job. She also likes the man in charge of the company where she works — the widowed Mr. Fox, and yes, "silver fox" is implied — with whom she has a budding, if secret, relationship.

It is this relationship that draws Singh into the puzzle of her lost colleague. The company has been financing the Amazonian work of the formidable Dr. Swenson, under whom Singh once studied. Swenson's exact location is unknown, and she has cut off communications. Anders was sent to Brazil to track down Swenson and assess her progress on a new drug. That drug is so secret that using outsiders to check on its development is out of the question.

What Swenson may have discovered is a feminine fountain of youth. An Amazonian tribe, the Lakashi, is populated by women who remain fertile their entire lives, giving birth into their 80s. If Swenson has completed her task in translating that to drug form, the life choices of American women could shift as significantly as they did after the advent of the birth control pill. More important for Mr. Fox, the company stands to make a fortune.

The setup is like a feminized "Heart of Darkness." But Patchett replaces the savagery in Joseph Conrad's tale with fecundity: In her story, the deepest region of the jungle is a place of fertility and rebirth.

That's not to say it's without hazards. Even traveling to Brazil is difficult for Singh. Arriving in the Brazilian city of Manaus, Singh is liberated of her luggage, losing her cellphone and clothes; she's also unsettled, isolated, by the new place's trappings.

Despite herself, she learns her way around. She also learns to wait with genuine patience. A pair of young, stylish travelers living in Swenson's Manaus apartment serve as the doctor's protectors and gatekeepers. Singh — as Anders before her — must convince them that she is trustworthy.

Eventually, Singh's waiting pays off, and she travels upriver.

Singh's time in Manaus drags a bit When she gets to Swenson's jungle lab, what she finds there doesn't fulfill Conradian expectations. Exactly what's happening there will take Singh time to understand.

Her fate, the mystery surrounding Anders and the future of the people around her become entangled as the book speeds to an exciting close. Patchett creates a compelling mystery. Yet Singh, despite her adapted appearance, remains an interloper. Perhaps this is a larger statement about how Americans interact with the developing world. Or maybe it's because Singh, despite her best intentions, remains the agent of a pharmaceutical company.